


Retirement

by therune



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Fun, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-05-15 17:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14794608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therune/pseuds/therune
Summary: dh-kinkmeme fill - https://dishonored-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/446.html?thread=542142#cmt542142Totally disregarding Daud's fate in Death of the Outsider, CONSIDER THIS.Corvo was the one who managed to escape after Delilah's coup. During one of the missions in residential parts of Karnaca, he passes through an apartment that just happens to be where Daud is currently living. Like, jumps through a window and sees Daud making scrambled eggs. Or literally steps on him because Daud's bed is right next to the balcony. Or drops down to street level next to Daud buying the newspaper.How bout some light-hearted fluff, eh?Basically, Corvo is a low-chaos ghost player and Daud is of the firm conviction that it still counts as stealth if everybody is unconscious. To Corvo's horror, it works.





	1. Chapter 1

His thoughts are consumed with Emily. How she must be feeling - if she can feel, encased in stone - if she is safe, when he can get back to her and how to save her.   
Plus, there's the small matter of a city so much changed it may as well be foreign, guards and a bloodfly infestation in the neighboring building.   
So, all in all, it might be excusable to be a little bit preoccupied and maybe not quite as much focused on his surroundings as he should have been. 

He lands on the balcony, thinking that he can bypass the guard outpost on the ground if the apartment inside does have a window on the south side, which by all rights it should. 

The good news is that he is indeed right.

The bad news is that the apartment is occupied and when he tries to sneak past the inhabitant in the kitchen, he nearly gets a frying pan to the face. 

Corvo reaches for his powers, freezing time so that he can get away and escape without harming anyone. There's a lurch, the world turns grey, the void whispering in his ear words in a forgotten tongue and instead of stopping, the pan still comes closer. He sidesteps, wondering if his powers have been diminished, or if they still have to grow stronger after Delilah had taken his mark, if his connection to the void needs to-

"Shit." 

Huh. It's not a shout, as he expected. It's not surprised. It's resigned.

The world regains focus and behind the black metal of the pan there's a man. He's dressed in normal garb - not expensive, but well cared for - has grey hair, a beard and a scar bisecting his face near his eye and he knows those eyes and

"Shit," Corvo echoes. 

He should expect blows. A fight. Of course he gets ready, drops to a defensive stance and let his blade twirl out of habit. As for Daud - who knows? There are knives in the kitchen, without a doubt he has a weapon stash somewhere, maybe he'd try to kill Corvo with the pan.   
But neither of them move, neither reaches for their mark, neither dares to take the first step. 

"I'm getting too old for this shit," Daud declares all of a sudden and drops to the single chair. Corvo doesn't let his guard down, not even when Daud goes for a bottle of Old Dunwall. Daud fills up a glass to the brim, looks at it critically for a second. Then he pushes the glass over in his direction and begins to drink straight from the bottle. 

"You look like you need a drink and I'm not gonna do any of this-" he gestures with his left hand vaguely " sober. 

"You actually retired," Corvo states eventually. 

"Yep. Patched myself up, went on the next ship out of Dunwall and never looked back."

That had been...neater than expected. 

"And before you ask," Daud continues, "I am not the Crownkiller. Nor do I work for Delilah or the Duke here or in fact anyone. I'm out of the business."

The thought had crossed Corvo's mind once. But then, mysterious killings and Daud used to go hand in hand. 

Corvo expects more from himself. Anger. Yes, he feels anger, but there should be howling fury and hatred and the urge to smash Daud's face into the floor until it's a bloody mess of bone and brains. But no, that feeling doesn't come. Maybe before, but now he has Emily's rescue to think about and dealing blows with Daud would have a negative impact on his mission - if he's lucky just a delay, if he's unlucky injuries that he can't afford. 

The bottle is half empty now. 

"You're really out?" Corvo asks, an idea forming in his mind. 

"Yes. I have a small garden on the roof, I show the kids in the neighborhood how to whittle and I don't kill people for money. Or for some other kind of payment."  
Of course even his retirement involves knives. 

"You owe me," Corvo states.

Daud sets down the bottle with a heavy clunk. 

"Who do you want dead?"   
He looks as if he expects Corvo to say "you".

"Delilah."

"Shit."

"Daud, you owe Emily."

"Let me get my coat."

As he gets up, Corvo sees the knife in the holster on his leg. Another one tucked into a boot. How many others has he missed, he wonders. 

"Why didn't you come at me with one of those?" he asks.  
"The frying pan was closer," Daud says and shrugs.

Fair enough. If any man is as deadly with a kitchen utensil as a regular weapon, it would be Daud. 

He watches as Daud fetches a black coat from the wardrobe, then pulls a chest from the bottom and opens it. Inside there is a sword, holsters, knives, knives that are so big they could be swords and what seems to be roughly 20 bone charms. 

"Retired, huh?"

Daud grins at that. 

 

"I did say I was into whittling."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kouguma mused about Daud and how lethal he can be with non-conventional weapons. I got inspired.

"Was that a rubber stamp?“ Corvo asked incredulously. Because it had - indeed – looked like Daud had just beaten a man unconscious with a stamp. An Overseer wearing his mask, no less. One would think that the metal mask might make that more difficult. Daud shrugged and put the stamp back on the desk. Then, he pulled over a piece of paper, used the stamp and grinned when today's date showed up in red instead of blue ink. He held it up for Corvo to see and Corvo resisted the urge to hide his face in his palms. He'd been doing that a lot recently. 

Daud was a formidable ally, especially one who did what was asked without objection or hesitation. Then why did Corvo feel like he had gained a pet instead of a subordinate? Yes, Daud obeyed his orders, but the way he went about it spoke of unecessary creativity. Surely you could incapacitate a guard without dragging him off the street with your supernatural abilities, drop him from the balcony you were hiding on, grab him again, hoist him up under his terrified screams, let him fall and that on repeat until the man had fainted? And when he sent Daud to buy – he had specified 'buy' even – a rewiring tool from the black market, the man had come back with the tool and the rest of the market's portable inventory. Corvo had failed to specify that Daud was to not rob the shop after paying. Sometimes it felt like Daud was a big cat, dragging dead birds and mangled mice to his owner, proud and smug of his deeds. 

 

At least he had made the "no killing under any circumstances“ very clear, so that was off his conscience. Corvo was also very glad he had amended "no torture, maiming, horrific irreversible injuries, slow lethal wounds, poison and for the Outsider's sake, why do you need so many incendiary bolts?“. The bolts had been for Corvo actually, to keep the bloodflies at bay. Daud had no need for them. He had a bone charm that made him seem more harmless to the insects and he was able to sneak by without alerting them to his presence. Until he threw liquor bottles at the nests, then there were shrieks and the horrible stench of burning flies and nests. Corvo was perplexed as to where Daud found the bottles all the time. 

 

"Have you seen any notes about Durante?“ Corvo asked.  
"I still think you should let me have a go. I'm great at crosswords, I would have figured out that riddle eventually,“ Daud replied. He had insisted that he could solve the riddle to Stilton's home, if he had a bit of peace and quiet and some paper. Corvo didn't doubt it, but he couldn't know how long that would take, plus there was the small matter of a gang war raging in the district.  
„This way is faster,“ he repeated for the 20th time (or at least it felt like it was).  
Then he spotted a key and a piece of paper on a side table. He read it, cursing his luck. Durante was dead and they wouldn't get the combination this way. They would have to go to this Paolo and see if they could get it from him. This was again time he could ill afford. He turned around to inform Daud of this new turn of events. He caught him rearranging the unconscious Vice Overseer and some of his colleagues in a human pretzel by tying them together with their boot laces and belts. He at least had the decency to look sheepish.  
"We need to go to Paolo's bar, Durante is dead.“  
Daud grinned. That had been his preferred method, after solving the riddle himself, of course. 

"I need to get to his office, hopefully we will find a clue to the solution.“ Daud was perched next to him on the railing at the very top. He was balancing a knife at the tip of a finger. Corvo couldn't believe he was about to say that, but  
"I need you to cause a distraction.“  
The smile Daud gave him reminded him of a sketch he'd seen in Sokolov's book about his expedition to Pandyssia: it showed a great cat, as large as a horse, with black fur and with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. (Apparently it had eaten two of Sokolov's fellow explorers). 

 

Corvo learned that day that a) everyone wrote down combinations, be it for safes, passwords or answers for seemingly unsolvable riddles of national importance and b) it had been pointless to be concerned about what Daud could possibly do with a frying pan. He was just as formidable with a flask, two pens and the poor violinist's bow. 

 

The heart beat fast against his own, tucked into Corvo's shirt and he found a shrine as he looked for it. The Outsider appeared, giving him information about Paolo (who had been beaten unconscious with an ash tray. Twice).  
"I'm curious about your choice of ally. This is something not even I saw coming.“  
"I found him by accident. He tried to kill me with a pan.“  
If smiling was something the Outsider did, he would have been beaming.  
"He was always so very interesting.“  
That was certainly one way to put it.


	3. Chapter 3

The manor has his hair standing on edge. This house feels wrong on such a fundemantal level it settles into his bones. Everything grinds on him, every sensation too much and yet so far away and muted. Daud has gone pale and silent, pressing his marked hand over his heart and running his other over the mark, over and over again. He seems to take it worse than Corvo. He's been marked for longer, maybe it affects him more? 

When they find Aramis Stilton, or what's left of him, a ghost wearing the tattered remains of a fine suit, babbling helplessly, the Outsider grants them a gift. Corvo doesn't want to accept it at first, but he has no choice if he ever wants to get out alive. It's not on purpose when he uses it for the first time; he is merely thinking about how to activate it and then he's suddenly in a grand music room, filled with warm candle light and precious instruments. He goes back immediately. Apparently the key to using the timepiece is to wish really hard. 

Corvo returns to Daud having filed away a sizeable portion of the metal bedsteads blocking the door using some sort of wires. Stilton is complaining about Daud having broken his piano, but Daud merely tells him that he was shit at playing it anyway. 

Hesitatingly, Daud places a hand on Corvo's shoulder and this time they're both three years ago. The rest of the house matches or even outshines the music room. Unfortunately, it's also filled with guards. 

As it turns out, not having access to his powers doesn't make Daud harmless. It just means he is using a different set of tricks. While Corvo prefers stealth – going through an area unseen and achieving his goals without anyone even noticing he was ever there, Daud seems to be of the conviction that it's also stealth if no one is conscious to discover him. The sad part is that it's working.

Corvo winces in sympathy as Daud breaks a stone vase over a guard's head before sliding down a corridor, shooting another guard – a veteran judging by the uniform – in the neck with a sleep dart before knocking down their partner....using the veteran guard herself, swinging her by her legs. The resulting crash attracts the attention of another group, but Daud, utter bastard, has counted on that. He has stretched the wire, pilfered from the piano, low over the ground. Another loop of it is wound around the ventilator mounted on the wall. The first guard trips over the wire, crashing into the chair Daud had repositioned earlier. Then the wire snaps, hits the next guard in the face before getting tangled into the third guard's shirt, dragging him into the ventilator and knocking him out. From his position on the chandelier – and Corvo doesn't even know how Daud has managed to get up there without his powers – Daud throws the serving tray, tripping the last guard who hits her head and falls unconscius.

“I said: Get to the first floor unseen,” Corvo repeats, “which part of that translated to …. _any_ of this?” He gestures helplessly to the pandemonium at their feet.  
“Now they can't see me,” Daud shrugs. 

Corvo really should have thought this through. Bringing Daud into the past, to observe Delilah's mysterious resurrection, had been a terrible idea. He has found out that changing events in the past – like damaging the balcony's support structure or removing an infested corpse – have an effect on the present, on their time. He's fairly certain that three years ago, there hadn't been a crazy mercenary around, knocking out everybody in their path. Would this have an effect? How will their world change because of their actions? 

It feels like talking to a hound when he firmly tells Daud to stay put when they enter the gardens.   
“I will get the combination from Stilton. We're not here to change things. Void knows what we have already broken with your antics.”  
Daud doesn't quite pout, but it's a near thing.   
He sits down, takes out a knife that is only not a sword because of its shape, not size, and starts whittling. Of course it's a half finished bone charm.   
“Whatever you hear, don't come closer. Don't help me,” Corvo repeats.

He's sneaking on the supports near the wall, closely observing the guards' movements. Stilton is in a gazebo, pacing up and down, muttering. The man is deeply concerned about Luca and what is going on in his house.   
Corvo tries, he really tries, to just get the combination and leave. But then Stilton laments his choices, wishing that he could take it back, make sure this evening never happened.   
Corvo takes a page from Daud's book and hits Stilton over the head with one of the busts lying around the place. Of course the guards notice that and thus Corvo uses up his sleepdarts trying to contain the situation.

“I thought we weren't here to change things.”  
“Shut up.”


	4. Chapter 4

A pen.  
Something in Corvo has definitely snapped. He goes on like a faulty audiograph.  
A pen.  
Daud zips around the Duke's office, opening every drawer and taking everything of value. That's quite a lot, so he's busy and leaves Corvo to his disturbed state.  
A pen.  
In front of Corvo, on the ground, there is a mess of broken machinery. Jindosh's legacy, one of his clockwork soldiers, lays in pieces on the marble floor. In the debris there is broken metal and wood, bent cogs and the damned pen itself.

Daud had followed Corvo's command “Look for the Duke. Don't interact, not until we're sure if it's the real one or the body double” to the letter.  
Corvo had hidden on a high bookshelf in the office, deep in the shadows. Daud had been perched on an elevated flower bed. The Duke – presumably – had left his office, leaving behind two guards and the machine. It had been activated already, patrolling the room and talking in Jindosh's voice. It was unsettling, but Corvo couldn't tell what troubled him more, the blades or the damn mask. 

Corvo gestured to Daud. He pointed at himself and then the two guards. Daud nodded. Then Corvo pointed at him and then held up his hand. Daud rolled his eyes, but nodded again.   
Silently, Corvo slid off the bookcase and sneaked up behind the first guard. He choked her out. Suddenly, the world froze and turned gray. There was no sound anymore, so his own breath sounded terribly loud and he swore he could hear his heart beat. Time had stopped. And for a brief, fleeting second, Corvo had been pleasantly surprised. Daud had misinterpreted the sign that told him to wait, but this could make their job easier. This way, they could sweep the room and avoid dealing with the machine. This might actually be helpful.  
He went to the other guard who had been frozen admiring a painting and put him in a chokehold. That meant turning his back to the mechanical monstrosity, but he had the advantage due to not being affected by the time stop. As he felt it decaying, life rushing back, he blinked to safety back on the bookcase.   
Then three things happened simultaneously:   
The guards collapsed almost in unison, there was a horrible screeching sound and the clockwork soldier exploded into a hundred pieces.   
At first, Corvo thought that Daud had dispatched a truly exaggerated amount of grenades and bullets to combat the thing. Daud hadn't made much use of conventional weapons so far – why waste a bolt when you could just as easily hit someone over the head with a chair leg, a priceless Sokolov original or a piece of bread that had gone hard as a rock when stale?

“What have you done?” he asked – demanded.   
“I jammed a pen into the exposed machinery in its chest. And then it exploded,” Daud explained nonchalantly.   
“A pen,” Corvo repeated.   
Daud had killed the machine monstrosity that was equipped with swords for arms, could throw electricity and kill almost anything on sight....with a pen.  
“A pen,” Corvo uttered again.  
Daud shrugged. “It was a fancy pen, basically unbreakable. Worth a shot.”  
Corvo stared at the broken machine, lost in thought.   
Daud started to ransack the office.

Corvo knows that Daud's talent for violence is unparalleled in all the Isles, maybe the entire world.   
“Do you think the Duke has any more of those?” Daud asks with a grin. He's holding up a set of expensive fountain pens.


End file.
